Our schedule for combining BLHFHG and PHFHG

[my3sons]

Hi gals! I enjoy peeking at other people's schedules so much, so I thought I'd share our schedule for combining BLHFHG and PHFHG. We're 3 weeks into it, and it's going really well. A little background though...
I've found we move things around a bit about every 3 months when we have a growing baby/toddler. It seems like as the toddler's schedule changes, ours needs to too. He's a very attention-grabbing toddler , so it's not so easy to have him right near us doing school. Since my son started BLHFHG, he's matured enough to stop having to have playtime first thing in the morning. He understands starting right away = more playtime at the end of the school day, and he likes that. (We get up at 7 now, because toddler does, and he is LOUD!!! We might as well get up since we're all UP anyway - though I'd prefer a bit later of a wake up time, it's what makes the most sense now.)

7:00 AM Toddler wakes us all up with loud shouts of "MAMA, MAMA, MAMA!!!" I give him board books to look at in crib, make sure my older boys are up and moving, and I do my Bible devotions in my bed.
By 8:15 AM: PHFHG son has gotten ready, done his "bedroom" chores, cleaned bathroom mirrors/wiped down bathroom counters, eaten breakfast, and is now starting school. He enjoys reading 1 story from his children's Bible on the living couch (for quiet time). I'm showered and ready to start. I bring toddler up to room for playpen time with special toys.
By 8:30 AM: BLHFHG son needs longer to eat and do chores. By this time he has gotten ready, done his "bedroom" chores, fed the dog, taken out the kitchen garbages, and now reads his Beginner's Bible independently on the living room couch. Meanwhile, I am giving dictation to PHFHG son.
Times flow in chunks for this next part. So, I'll just give the order of things in chunks, but I'll put a sunglass face before each thing I am doing so you know where the "teacher" time is happening:

PHFHG: look up Bible Study box memory verse, hi-light it, practice it with hand motions, discuss verse with me, say it for me, sing with CD with me, start him on R & S Grammar
BLHFHG: 3 questions discussion about Beginner's Bible with me, independently does Explode the Code Workbook at kitchen table
Toddler: playpen

PHFHG: finish short written part of R & S grammar independently (whatever I assigned, usually a few problems from each section), listen to book on tape at library table with headphones for a chapter or two (about 15 minutes)
BLHFHG: sing Bible verse with me in kitchen, say verse together with hand motions and discuss with me on living room couch, read poem, read history and science (if it's a science day), get him started on matching activity (bottom lefthand box of left side of plans)
Toddler: playpen

PHFHG: play with toddler in playroom in basement (we used to do this upstairs in their rooms before we got that room done in the basement - any place they can be safe and secluded works well)
BLHFHG: finish whatever above things need to be done - most likely the activity

PHFHG: Reading about History box - read together on couch and do box's plans, read Storytime box and discuss on couch, do as much of rotating box (research, geog., timeline, vocab.) as necessary together, discuss History Project box and get supplies if needed.
Then, send him to kitchen table to finish rotating box if more to do, do Independent History box, and History Project - all of this is done independently then.
BLHFHG: play with toddler in playroom in basement

PHFHG: finish working independently on above things, Go over math lesson our part together
BLHFHG: listen to book on tape at library table with headphones (about 20 minutes or so)
Toddler: Love on him, change diaper, take him upstairs to watch Barney video in our bedroom

PHFHG: does rest of his math workbook independently at dining room table, begin Science box on his own
BLHFHG: do spelling with him at kitchen table, he reads Emerging Reader's Set to me on living room couch, orally discuss questions for book, I read Storytime read-aloud and we do that box's oral narration together, do our Math part together, get him started on math workbook, on handwriting (I'm having him do "A Reason for Handwriting A" since he's not ready to copy the poetry yet), IQ Boosters (a critical thinking workbook)
Toddler: watching Barney

PHFHG: do my part of DITHOR with him, he finishes science and DITHOR on his own
BLHFHG: finishing above work
Toddler: out toddling around with us as I make lunch

All of Us: lunch together, we do PHFHG poetry together at lunch table. And we're DONE!!! With this schedule, we've been able to finish by noon or 12:30 PM now. But, I kept a lot of the same kind of routines for the most part as our last schedule combining LHFHG and PHFHG, so we're about 3 mos. into it, which makes everything go more smoothly. If I was just starting this type of schedule, I wouldn't be able to finish by lunch time, so I'd probably have to do lunch, have them play for an hour, and probably still have to finish up the last 2 chunks listed above yet. The longer we stick with the general "gist" of the schedule, the quicker it starts to go and the sooner we begin to finish.

Hope this may help someone! HOD makes it EASY to run 2 programs, so if that's where your dc really place best and your heart is telling you combining is going to be way too much of a stretch for one of your dc, than I'd encourage you to give it a try!

In Christ,
Julie

[Allison TX]

Thank you for posting this, Julie. I think it will be very helpful as I attempt to add Little Hearts to our day in January. We are several weeks into Preparing now and have found our groove, but I know I'm going to have to change it up a little when we add another program. You make it look so easy with your schedule!

Allison

[marypoppins]

Thanks for posting this, Julie! I will be running these same two programs next year. Right now, I'm experimenting with how to run LHFHG and Bigger together. We are only a couple days into Bigger, so I'm in the early stages of figuring this out. Right now, we definitely are NOT finished by lunch, so I am going to really study your schedule and see if I can tweak mine a bit to finish up earlier. Thanks much!!!

[marypoppins]

Julie,
I printed out your schedule, read it over, and made notes in the margins. It looks great, but HOW do you get all that done by lunch ? Can you tell me about how long you spend on the teaching part for English and Math? Your ds must be a very diligent worker to get his independent work done so quickly.

Also, I saw that you have your dc take turns listening to books on tape at a little library "station." If you don't mind me asking, what books are they listening to? Are they HOD books, or is it just supplemental for fun? Regardless, it is a neat idea and sounds interesting to me...

[my3sons]

Julie,
I printed out your schedule, read it over, and made notes in the margins. It looks great, but HOW do you get all that done by lunch ? Can you tell me about how long you spend on the teaching part for English and Math? Your ds must be a very diligent worker to get his independent work done so quickly.

Also, I saw that you have your dc take turns listening to books on tape at a little library "station." If you don't mind me asking, what books are they listening to? Are they HOD books, or is it just supplemental for fun? Regardless, it is a neat idea and sounds interesting to me...

We're in the fourth month of doing PHFHG, so my ds has come a long way in what he can do independently and how quickly he is able to do it. As you can see from my first schedule here, we used to finish more like around 3:00 or 3:30:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2093&st=0&sk=t&sd=a ... +schedules

I do not spend long on the teaching time with R & S now because it is just making sense to him now. He usually reads the explanation on his own. We orally do the first half to 3/4 of the first section, then he numbers his paper to write the last part of that section: (i.e. A. 6, 7, 8, 9). Then, we orally do same amount of the next section, then he numbers to write the rest of that section (i.e. B. 7, 8, 9, 10). We do the same for the remaining sections if there are any. Then, he just does his written part that's left for each section on his own. My teaching time varies, but typically it's around 10 minutes.

For math, he is doing Singapore 2B, which helps him be able to be independent. He just turned 9, so he's on the young end of PHFHG, and that level of math is on the easier side for him, but I'm o.k. with that. We did 1B/2A last year with BHFHG, and I tried to start with 3A this year (skipping 2B), and it became too hard for him after a bit. So, with all that being said, I would rather error on the side of math being a bit easy for him than it frustrating him, which is probably why my teaching time is short - maybe 5-10 minutes or so. I let him choose 1-2 lessons to do a day, and he always chooses to do 2 lessons. We don't do the Textbook part, but when I did do the textbook part at the beginning of the year with 3A, I did it very much like I described doing R & S English above - on marker board, a bit from each section - and we didn't do all of the textbook unless he really needed it. I know when we pick up 3A again my teaching time will increase, but then he'll probably be more independent at something else by then anyway.

I like to do my teaching part with him and then send him away to do all the independent time on his own - especially because I'm doing another HOD program and have a toddler too. This has freed up my time because I don't have to sit right by him and watch him do his independent work while I wait for my next "section" to teach. Hope that makes some sense, and I know that was way more detail than you were probably looking for, but I wanted to try to explain that it's taken a bit to reap the benefits of our "routine" and shorten our day to what it is here in this schedule.

In Christ,
Julie

[marypoppins]

Julie,

I wanted to let you know that I was able to use your schedule to help me make one of my own!!
I opened up an Excel spreadsheet and started out by breaking up my whole day into 15 minute increments. I then used your schedule as a framework to help me organize my day. It was amazingly easy! Over the past two days, I've had to do a little tweaking - 5 minutes here, 10 minutes there - but what we now have is a very workable, organized schedule that allows us to complete all of our core subjects and HOD work by 12:30! Yippee!! The kids get a break from 12:30 - 1:00 when we then have lunch and do some read alouds. I moved chore time to right after lunch instead of before school, and then we use the afternoon for art/music projects a couple times a week. I now have time to add these things that we just never seemed to have the time for before. I just can't believe how easy this was to accomplish. I give the Lord the glory for helping it all "gel" so easily, but I thank YOU for the inspiration and for getting me started in the right direction!!!!! (I've actually gotten lots more chores done this week, too. Wow! ) Thank you so much!

[Carrie]

HOORAY, Marypoppins! I'm so glad for you! You're so right that Julie is an amazing scheduler. We're blessed to have her on the board.

What a blessing that she was able to help you head in the right direction. Schedules can be such a tough area. Thanks for sharing.

Blessings,
Carrie

[my3sons]

Oh, I'm so happy for you MaryPoppins!!! I'm so glad that you are finishing earlier and able to do the other things you were wanting to do! I always wonder if it's worth it to type it out here, and you just made me feel like it was. Praise be to God! I'm celebrating along with you!!!

In Christ,
Julie

[marypoppins]

You know what else I realized, too???? HOD has helped me kick by computer habit! I had become so used to spending countless hours on the computer researching, and talking, researching, and talking.... I knew it was getting out of hand, but it had become a habit, ya know? (And can I admit to you? It was habit that I really struggled with for a long time. )

I am so content now, having switched over to HOD. In over 4 years of homeschooling, I have never had such peace and contentment with what I'm doing day-to-day. I really am in awe of how smoothly things are going. I really just don't have the time or desire to waste so much of my day on the computer. Our days are just so full and rich and interesting using this curriculum. This is just another confirmation to me that I am finally where the Lord wants me to be and that He is blessing this endeavor.

[my3sons]

You know what else I realized, too???? HOD has helped me kick by computer habit! I had become so used to spending countless hours on the computer researching, and talking, researching, and talking.... I knew it was getting out of hand, but it had become a habit, ya know? (And can I admit to you? It was habit that I really struggled with for a long time. )

I am so content now, having switched over to HOD. In over 4 years of homeschooling, I have never had such peace and contentment with what I'm doing day-to-day. I really am in awe of how smoothly things are going. I really just don't have the time or desire to waste so much of my day on the computer. Our days are just so full and rich and interesting using this curriculum. This is just another confirmation to me that I am finally where the Lord wants me to be and that He is blessing this endeavor.

I completely identify with what you are saying here. Praise God for the peace He has given you with HOD, and praise Him also for the encouragement you give here on the HOD board!

In Christ,
Julie